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Soigá
Soigá is a country consisting of multiple islands in Western Europe, off some 267 km of the coast of Galicia, to the West. It has a population of around 4,0 million people on a surface area of around 33,819 km^2. Soigá has an intriguing history, and an unique culture in Europe. They are regarded as an economically progressive country. Etymology In the Firrobatist religion, it is stated that when the Firrobatists (the original name of the Soigan people according to the Firrobatists) crossed the sea, to flee from the Híetorians, a people influenced by Sídar (later more about the religion), they saw a massive land raised from the sea, in the direction of the Star of Birth. In the Firrobatist mythology, this was done by Omró, the world dreamer, to save the Firrobatists, who are according to the myth the chosen people. To raise in Modern Olfkin (the language of Soigans) means hasykar. This could have very well be something similar sounding as soigar ''or something like that thousands of years ago. The suffix -''á ''(and removing the root suffix, here -''ar) changes the meaning of the word to a passive noun. Thus, hasyká ''means ''(the) raised one. The Soigans themselves actually refer to their country as Zoigá. The reason the spelling is different stems from the different spelling before 1937, when Olfkin went under a big new spelling process. Other countries still used Soigá as name and so the name Soigá stayed in the English language. Soigá is also called Olfland or Olfenland sometimes, but this is not common in English. Soiga (without the accute accent) is also a common English name for Soigá. The native language of Soigá is called Olfkin in English, but this is again a misspelling. This stems from the year 1641, when Jan Pieterszoon, a Dutch explorer, wrote about the language. He translated the language name as "Olfkins", probably because he misheard the name. This again stuck to all kind of various languages, like English. The native name for the language is Holfín. The -''ín'' suffix has the archaic meaning of "being related/pertaining to", while the stem Holf ''traces back to the proto-Olfkin word for "we" (inclusive). Thus, ''Holfín ''has the (archaic) meaning of ''It which is related/pertaining to us. History The Soigans Soigá has only been inhabited since the year ~1000 BC. Only then artifacts and other human presence can be found on the island. The group of people that settled in Soigá are called the Soigans. This ethnic group is very interesting. Scholars call this ethnic group before they settled in Soigá the proto Soigans, and they lived in what is now Marocco and Western Sahara (disputed territory). There can also be spoken of a proto Soigan culture, as cave art and sculptures clearly indicate figures that relate to Soigan culture and art, albeit perhaps in proto form. Genetic analysis of DNA shows that Soigans have a high resemblence in DNA with rural isolated communities in southern Marocco. Deteriorating climate and arrival of new peoples made the proto Soigans leave their homes and cross the Strait of Gibraltar around 4000 to 3000 BC. The Soigans arrived in Iberia, where they stayed for millenia, but around the year 1000 BC they made the passage to Soigá. Why exactly they did that will remain a mistery, but the myth says that the Soigans were followed by the Híetorians who were an evil tribe, influenced by Sídar (Zídarí in modern Olfkin), who wanted to kill the Soigans. The Soigans made the passage from what is now Galicia, the area were the Soigans had probably stayed the most during their time in Iberia. There is not much known about the Soigans before the Romans came in 110 BC. We do know however, that they had a clan system, and were very tribal. Even though modern scholars view the Soigans as one ethnicity, the Soigans were divided in atleast three tribes (better seen as clan federations): the Merdivozians, the Inkians and the Gao (also spelled Gaodii sometimes, or Gaodians). The Merdivozians had the south, the Inkians the north and centre, and the Gao the east. These three tribes were further divided in clans, or dervulú. The clan leaders elected a new leader of the tribe, each time the previous leader died or resigned. It appeared the Inkians and Merdivozians were one tribe, but split off. Each clan had colourful symbols, unique portrayals. Clan men would tattoo themselves, and were sworn to protect their clan village, or land. The Greeks mentioned that there was an island beyond the "edge", which was often synonymous of Iberia, called Krokósmou (portmanteau of ἄκρον κόσμου, or extreme of the world). According to Greek myths, one could only go to Soigá with flying dolphins, who could stand the extreme weather and boundaries of the "edge". Strabo did not inlcude Soigá in his work of Geographika, probably because he thought Soigá was simply a myth. There is an ongoing debate whether or not Krokósmou ''is actually Soigá, and not just a myth and that the Old Greeks simply did not know about the real existence of Soigá. The myths and sagas of the Soigans were only written down in the Merdivozian Era and in the Medieval Ages, and although they are mythical in nature, scholars try to extrapolate historical context from the myths. For example, in the epos of ''Gegaelarín, which writes about a hero named Gegaelarox. According to the myth, a huge flood happened, which drawned many people, and Gegaelarox challenged Refáréx, God of the Seas, who according to the myth was posessed by Sídar. Gegaelarox defeated him and killed him, and then Gegaelarox took the job of keeping the seas steady. Scholars have found evidence of a flood, for example inscriptions of a giant flood and eroded stones in low areas where it is unexplainable (instead of having a flood) how they would be eroded relatively short time ago. First contact with the Romans In 110 BC, an expedition led by the rich Roman landlord Aulus Vespius discovered Soigá. Vespius was an influential Roman landlord who was very interested in the world. He paid scholars to find the radius of the world, make maps of Northern Africa, Middle East and Northern Europe, and write about all kinds of cultures. Some say a storm drove the expedition to Soigá when travelling through the Soigan Sea (the sea between Soigá and Spain). The expedition came on the land what would now be Deverná (South Eastern Soigá). The written story was written by someone named Marco, although historians generally do not view this person as directly important and that this person probably was an average Roman that could write and therefore was used for the expedition. Marco wrote that Soigá appeared as a "Green great forest dooming up alone in the lone sea." The expedition was four ships, each having goods and men. A few soldiers with them to protect from any unexpectable attack. The first mission was to seek contact, as Marco writes. The Romans quickly meeted the Merdivozians, who had, according to Marco, colourful drawn symbols on their plate armour. The Merdivozians gave the men food, and allowed them to do their job, namely making a map of the island and describing the culture. However, northern Soigá could not be visited, as that wasn't under the control of the Merdivozians. Marco also wrote about the language, which he described as "A weird strange language unlike sophisticated languages like Greek and Latin, and more like the Iberian languages but yet in a strange way much different." Because of this passage historians in the 19th century thought Olfkin could be related to paleo Hispanic languages, but modern historians disagree with this, although they agree that those languages have influenced Olfkin. On a sidenote though, there is a theory that Etruscan and Olfkin are related to each other. Some words in Latin that have Etruscan background, are also found in Olfkin. Some historians argue that these words in Olfkin are too different from their Latin counterparts to be borrowed from Latin, as well as a few of these words being mentioned in texts of the Firrobatistic religion written in the first millenium, which would make it weird to change the original word with a new borrowed word. However, there are a few different things with Etruscan compared to Olfkin, like Etruscan is nominative-accusative, and Olfkin absolutive and ergative. We can not do more than speculate. The Romans left a trade post, named Viridisolis, or Green Sun, on which they traded with the mainland. Soiga is rich in gold, amber and several other goods, and the Romans really liked to have these goods. The Merdivozians used this to trade for weapons and armour, and because of this beneficial relationship with the two people, the Merdivozians could dominate the whole island. The Merdivozian Era A letter found within a Roman barrack in Galicia states that the Soigan trade post was disbanded in the year 56 BC. They probably left because the trade wasn't profitable enough. You have to know that Rome is thousands of kilometers away from Soigá. Even though it was a relatively short period, the Romans introduced writing and "civilized" ways of living. The Merdivozians had the power, and Mertak the First (ruled from 54 to 23 BC) called himself the first king of "Merdivozia". Fun little sidenote: in modern day Olfkin, mertak ''means ''king. The Merdivozian Era is the era in Soiga that started when King Mertak ascending the throne to the 112 AD, when the Romans came back. This gives the Merdivozian Era a time span of 166 years. King Mertak wished that Soigá became more like Rome and Greece, and he builded a lot of Roman like buildings. People where sent to Rome, Athens and Alexandria. The world was opened to Soigá. Mertak died in the year 23 BC, and he was followed by King Pytos. King Pytos pulled Soigá in a different direction. He wanted Soigá to become it's own sophisticated culture, just like the Romans differed from the Greeks. He ordered the epos of Firrobatism to be written down. These stories had always been oral, but now, they were written down. They were written down in Latin script, but in the Olfkin language. Obviously, the Olfkin language then differed a lot from Modern Olfkin, and scholars generally call Olfkin then Ancient Olfkin. King Pytos died in the year 3 AD, on the relatively old age of 71 years. The Roman Empire The Romans stayed in Soigá till 384 AD. In that year, the Romans had basically abandoned all their leaderships over the island. Stone streets, big buildings, arenas, theaters, etc. were build. Statues of Governors, generals and Emperors can be found. The cities of nowadays Vidigas (Vindicas) and Tásaní (Tasanium) were Roman settled cities. The province was a wealthy one, and it was called Aurealis, after the gold that was plenty of it in Soigá. Much of the gold in Rome is gold from Soigá. Although some traders, government officials and soldiers stayed in Soigá, the province still remained largely inhabited by the natives. Nevertheless, it is estimated that half of all Soigans have atleast one ancestor that was Roman. The Roman religion, and Christianity in the later phase of the Empire, never really got off in Soigá. Around 10% of all the words in Olfkin have a Latin background, mainly words related to government, military, religion etc. Many Roman coins in Soigá were still used even after the Romans left. That was the legacy of the Romans in Soigá. Suevian Rule and War Suevian war During the fall of the Roman Empire, the Great Migration happened. Several Germanic tribes fled from the Huns that came from Asia. The Suevians went into Spain. They conquered large parts of western Spain. An expedition to Soigá was made. After fierce clashes with the local tribes and Merdivozians, the Suevians could control Soigá. The Suevian king Olferic made himself King of Soigá in the year 431 AD. This angered the Suevian King Hermeric, who was King of Gallaecia. King Hermeric sended a large convoy, of around 20,000 men, to Soigá. Olferic, who didn't posses such a large army, quickly turned to the local population. In change for more autonomy and say in the Suevian Kingdom of Soigá, many Soigans were attracted to joining Olferic's faction. Quickly, Olferic had an army rivaling that of Hermeric, consisting mainly of Soigan clan men, with a strong "elite" of Germanic soldiers. King Hermeric's army embanked on the shores of what is now Korisefé, or south east Mišömerá (which is in the south of Soigá). Plundering and looting, his army captured the city Véríjaex. It was utterly demolished and put to the ground by his army. The local clans of the Tresilanii and Feiulii (giving their Latin names), Merdivozian clans, armed their clan men and attacked Hermeric in what is now known as the Battle near Véríjaex. Because a large part of Hermeric's army was still looting, a significantly less part of his army was able to repent the attack. The clans, under the clan leader Bertöx, made a swift attack using pefetetikú, a typical Soigan missile launcher (a modification of a normal sling, made to throw armor piercing disks). The Germanic soldiers of Hermeric, who wore heavy armor, could not prepare themselves. Many casualties were inflicted on their side. However, the clans, when making a run for it after the suprise attack, were chased by cavalry. Because the clan men knew the terrain perfectly, they split up and went to forests, where horses could not follow them. Wanting revenge, Hermeric rallied up his troops and destroyed every village, farm and town of the clans. The clans, who could not bare seeing this (hence the tactic of Hermeric), armed all their men again and attacked Hermeric. But now, Hermeric had the advantage: he had ordered his troops to set the woods nearby on fire, and to build portable bridges and ladders, so any hindernis could be overwon. The clan men were decimated, and had no chance against Hermeric's troops. To warn other clans to not fight him, Hermeric had Bertöx, the clan leader, executed. Hermeric's army, still large enough to battle any force, except maybe Olferic's army, went rampaging and plundering through the Soigan land. Large parts of Southern Soigá where in the hands of Hermeric, but then the confrontation happened between the two large armies: that of Hermeric and that of Olferic. Modern archeologists are pretty sure the battle happened at the north western bank of the Mímé river, and that's why they call the battle The Battle near the Mímé. Olferic army started the fighing, by manoeuvring his cavalry around the river and have the archers on horse provoke Hermeric's men, in the hope that gaps would appear in Hermeric's army, because of Germanic soldiers charging at the rapidly withdrawing-able cavalry of Olferic. However, this didn't happen. Hermeric, an experienced war leader, held his men at bay, but at the mean time, he moved his spear men secretly to a place where they could attack the cavalry from behind. Obviously, Olferic was aware of any like-minded trick of Hermeric to do so, so the cavalry always needed to have one clear way out. This he did by having a small part of the cavalry split off and scout the nearby areas, so they could warn the main squad if anyone would try to block them, while a strong unit of heavy cavalry safe-guarded the way out. A scout cavalrist spotted the spear men and warned the others. Quickly the cavalry dissapeared. Exactly how Hermeric wanted it... Since Olferic's cavalry manoeuvred around the river, and Hermeric's men guarded the few crossings, Hermeric won time. Valuable time. Quickly heavy infantery was sent over the crossings, these could push the suprised yet-unhelped Olferic's soldiers who were guarding there. Since these soldiers were pushed away, Hermeric's cavalry had a way through, without getting smashed between infantery lines. The cavalry could quickly get behind the enemy infantery lines and attack the Soigan clan men skirmishers and slingers, who were helpless. To defend the back of the infantery, Olferic ordered his spear men to form a defensive pike line towards the cavalry, who were now behind Olferic's main army. Hermeric splitted his cavalry in one significant strong unit, and one insignificant much weaker unit. The task of the much weaker unit was to provoke the spear men, act like the cavalry could charge at any moment, and giving an intimidating impression, as if all of the cavalry was still there. Meanwhile, the stronger unit went to the end of the river, to suprise Olferic's cavalry, who were now close to the actual battlefront. Since they were suprised, the horse archers, who formed the bulk of Olferic's cavalry, were of little use, and rather quickly, Olferic's cavalry routed. Back to the battlefront, Hermeric's soldiers had the upper front, because Olferic's spear men were kept busy by Hermeric's cavalry. Eventually, because of his larger force fighting, Hermeric could slowly but surely surround Olferic's troops. Olferic's spear men attacked the mass of soldiers in the last hope, but this enabled Hermeric's cavalry to decimate the last remaining flanks of Olferic's army. A domino effect happened, and mass routing occured with Olferic's troops. Olferic himself was killed in the battle. Nothing now could stop Hermeric from conquering Soigá. Suevian rule King Hermeric died in the year 441. His son Rechila then became king of the kingdom, and thus as well of Soigá. Rechila wished to expand the kingdom, and thus he invaded Southern Iberia. This meant the Suevians were at war with the Romans. For this, Rechila made a vast army, of which nearly 15,000 men were Soigans. In the course of aorund seven years (from 441 to 448 AD) Rechila conquered nearly the whole of Iberia, with the help of Soigan troops, that were now in his army. Till his death in 448 Rechila was in a near constant war with the Romans, who were quickly losing their power in Europe. With the death of Rechila a new king arose to power, this time it was Rechiar. He is most known in Soigan history as the one who introduced Christianity, namely Catholicism. He did this by force, and when the Firrobatists organised a revolt, Firrobatistic cities and villages were sacked. Sanctuaries of the Firrobatists were destroyed, and this angered the Merdivozians. A lot of Merdivozians, who were in Rechila's army, rebelled and sieged important cities of the Suevians in Iberia. It took Rechila quite an effort to form a peace treaty with the Merdivozians, something he wanted as the Merdivozians were an important asset in his army. Rechila came to an agreement: Christian missionaires could do their missionary job while protected by the Merdivozians in Soigá, and the Merdivozians would get money and weapons. Under the Merdivozian King Díregaex, who baptised himself so he became a Christian in 450 AD, Christianity finally became strong in Soigá, although still a majority was Firrobatistic. Rechiar, who wanted to complete the conquest of Iberia, made a campaign in 455 AD to do that. However, the Merdivozians and the allied Soigan tribes of the Inkians and Gaodians, refused to fight. This caused war between the two factions. Although Rechiar had a much larger army, Díregaex had the local people revolt and exploit local tensions between the Suevians. Moorish Rule The Kingdom of Soigá 1st Era Rofájel's rule ended when he died in 1733. The people called the local landlord Čárösart Zódenaix as leader, as he had formed a resistance against Rofájel's hard rule in the mountains north. Although he came from a firrobatistic family, he had himself baptised to Catholicism. Knowing that a power vacuum would arise, and thus possibly a civil war could happen, Čárösart rushed with his army of loyal citizens to the capital of Monéjá. After small fights with Christian fundamentalists (loyal to Rofájel), he had himself crowned by the Bishop of Soigá to King of Soigá. This was the first time the term "Soigá" was used to refer to the country, possibly because Čárösart used it as a form of propaganda (at that time "Soigá" was how people locally referred to the island). Čárösart made himself as "Protector of the People of Soigá", and used propaganda to gain the benefit of the doubt of the citizens. In his cabinet and officers he formed he purposefully assigned protestant, catholic and firrobatistic people. He secularized the state. According to him, the Soigans were one people, and they were undividable. Under Čárösart's rule nationalism rose, arts & literature prospered, economy flourished and trade with other countries finally was back. Of the economy, the ship building industry growed immensely. The port of Ṫámíras grew immensely, being before it just an insignificant sea shore village. At one point it had even 200,000 citizens. When King Čárösart died in 1759, Soigá was prospering. Mígrad, son of Čárösart, continued the succes of his father. However, he had more ambitions: he wanted to make of Soigá a power house. For this he allied with the British Empire, and Soigá became exporter of ships for the British Empire. Mígrad also set up large expeditions to the West African, Caribean and Indian coast. Trade posts were set up, and with the permission the Dutch Kingdom, the Soigans could also get land inwards in Indonesia. With this new trade Mígrad could build a relatively large navy, which he could use to deter any enemy invasion from oversea. Mígrad died in the year 1788, and he was followed by his nephew (as he had only daughters, and the inheritance was only on the patrilineal line) Jósefes. Jósefes, Napoleon and Spanish campaign When Jósefes came to power, Soigá was in a strong state, however, there were new challenges. France got soon after he became king a revolution, and this had also affected Soigá a bit. To maintain his position, Jósefes increased the military, and brought huge investments in poor slums of cities, to gain back the trust of the lower citizens. Jósefes decreased however the foreign operations, and mostly redirected the money to building projects and the homeland military. He restructured the government, especially the foreign one, to make it more efficient and less corrupt. While he did this, in France, a young general by the name of Napoleon came to power in France after campaigns in Italy and Egypt, and crowned himself to Emperor. This doing so, he eventually came into war with the British. The Soigans, still allied with the British Empire, supported the British Navy. As Soigá had a relative large navy, Napoleon had to find a way to stop them. This he did by convincing his ally Spain to invade Soigá. Spain, eager to gain Soigá's large gold and other mineral reserves as the Spanish Empire was crumbling, accepted. Under the Spanish general José Salvador Mengeluez the Spanish invaded Soigá in 1809 with nearly 50,000 men and a large number of ships. The French backed them up in the naval fights. The Soigan army fought with the Spanish in a number of battles, but eventually it had to give up, as the Spanish won them and had a larger army. King Jósefes went with his family into exile to England. Spanish Rule Under the Spanish Crown Spanish immigrants settled in Soigá (which led to hostile encounters between the Soigans and the Spanish), as a way to "Hispanize" the country, and thus, belittle possible future Soigan rebellions. The Soigans had to mine under terrible situations for gold, amber and other minerals. Soigans were also sometimes forced to fight for the Spanish. Olfkin was replaced with Spanish as government language. However, on the positive side huge building projects were announced, and cities were largely restructured and organised. Eventually, because tensions grew too high Ferdinand the Seventh agreed to give the Soigans a say in the government in 1830. Olfkin again was allowed to be spoken on governmental level. But because of Spanish colonies in the Americas declaring independence, Soigan nationalism rose again. Organised protests happened in the largest cities, These were stopped by the Spanish, but this only made the moral of the rebelling Soigans higher. Fierce clashes between rebels and the Spanish army ensued. André, descendant of the family of Zódenaix, saw a perfect chance to come back, and with a large army of mercenaries he landed on the shores of Soigá, to help the rebels. Quickly, the Spanish outposts in Soigá were defeated. And once again, the Soigan monarchy was back. In 1842 Soigá made itself official independent from Spain in the Treaty of Léon. The people made feast and danced all day long, because of happiness the Kingdom was back. Kingdom of Soigá 2nd Era The rule of King André however (1842 to 1877), even though a new wave of nationalism had happened, was not a lucky one for the monarchy. A lot of famines happened, and because the Spanish were so rapidly gone, the country was quite unstable. Soigan trade posts dissapeared due to lack of funds and fierce competition with bigger countries, and due to structural poverty and loss of jobs (dissapearing trade e.g.) thousands upon thousands had leaved the city to work in the agriculture, so they could atleast feed their families. Ṫámíras, once the largest city in Soigá, is a prime example of this: only 12,000 citizens remained in the city around 1850. 1848 was a difficult year for the monarchy especially, as revolutions happened all across Europe and the new book of Karl Marx appeared: Das Kapital. Poor citizens formed workers unions, and strikes became common. The economy of Soigá reached a low level, quite contrastedly compared to a century before. In 1856 nearly 3 thousand Maruiqi, a tribe living in what is now Senegal, arrived as refugees in Soigá. In Senegal they were seen as collabarateurs with the Soigans, who had a trade post there but disbanded it around 1845. The Maruiqi were unsafe there, and thus the local Soigan officer Hífard Pešilek, who couldn't bare to see a genocide, arranged ships to ship them over to Soigá. Hífard became a national hero later on, but in that time that was mainly because people thought the Maruiqi were descendants of the same tribe of which the Soigans split off, and thus, were "worthy enough" to rescue. However, this isn't true, but the myth was widespread and still today some people believe in it. The Maruiqi were Muslims, but it didn't cause much friction, and they settled mainly in the big cities. King Halamír King André died in 1877 to tuberculosis, but on the old age of 80 years. His grand son Halamír became king, instead of his son Verdídölax, because the latter died in an accident on the age of 45 years. Geography Soigá is a country in South Western Europe. It is about 25 226,5 square kilometers in size. This makes Soigá around the size of the island Sardinia or Sicily, or around the size of the Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia, or around the size of the US state of Vermont. Formation Mountains It has a hilly landscape, with the rugged Merkáte-Bliz area in the northwestern part of the country. The Hópátisíkai is the highest point in Soigá, with 2 106 meters. Rivers and lakes Soigá has 5 to 7 main rivers, depending on how you count. The longest river is the Mímé river, which is 162 km. However, this is following the Mímé Kripelken (lit. The Wild Mímé), which sidetracks from the main Mímé river about 82 km from the source of the Mímé river, at the point where the Mímé river splits off into two rivers: the Mímé Kripelken and the Mimé Hofémen (lit. The Quiet Mímé). The Kripelken eventually splits as well, into the Kripelken and the sidetracked Mímé Tásanae (lit. The Tasanian Mímé). Some count the Mímé as just one river, at which point the Mímé would be around 314 km combined, or as two rivers (the Kripelken and Hofémen), or as three (the Kripelken, Hofémen and the Tásanae). The largest lake in Soigá is the Birboibílé, at 17.8 km^2, which is also the source of the river Higúrí (the name giver of the regio of Higormöz), and this lake can be found in the regio of Polčímer. Birboipílé gets its water from the melting snow and rain from the nearby mountains. Forests Soigá is also known to be quite forested. Almost half of the island is forested! And especially forested part of Soigá is the northern part of the island. Čonmíjá and Hárýpé account for a quarter of all forests in Soigá. This is in contrast with the south, where a lot of forests have taken place for agriculture. Climate Flora and Fauna Politics Soigá is known to be a progressive country. It has many social laws. Especially when it is coming to economy. Soigá has inherited a lot of the Firrobatist culture, which views that humans can only live together. Government Political system Soigá is a parlementary republic (it is an unicameral one), and so, has a parlement and prime minister. The prime minister of the country is Vard Benúdae, who was the party candidate of the leading Partitos Por Kwalíkó mís Demográdó, or shortened PPKD (the social democrats) in the national elections of 2014. The prime minister's political term is for 4 years, and his/her job is to form a coalition (if his/her party did not reach the majority), and to form a cabinet. Soigá has as well a president, however, the president has merely symbolic functions (like going on diplomatic missions and establish trade agreements). The current president of Soigá is Koṫátíne Biredazilógéx. She is also from the PPKD party. You can only be president of Soigá if you are a Soigan citizen and have lived for atleast 25 years in the country, as well as being born in the country. The president is also head of the military, and hereby fullfills the role of the Minister of Defense. When the prime minister enables the emegency level for the country, the president will be the head of the govenrment, and be able to torpedo laws and veto bills, for a max term of one month (the prime minister can extend it at the end of the term). The Soigan president has also the powerful option of removing the prime minister, however, this can only truly happen if a third of the Parlement agrees with it. This can be cosidered "easier" in comparison with the method of issuing a "no confidence trust", which has to be enabled by one of the parlementarians, and which requires half of the parlementarians to agree with. The Soigan president has a max term of 6 years, after which new elections will happen. Interesting to notice is that the Soigan president is not chosen directly, but indirectly. More about this in the subject elections below. Elections Soigá knows two types of elections: the national elections, and the regional/muncipal elections. The national elections decide who gets to be prime minister of the country (the candidate of the winning party), and what the make up of the parlíament will be. Anyone can start a political party in Soigá, and there are no restrictions on what kind of goals it may set. For example, a party that says it wants to nuke every country (hyperbolical example) is not dissallowed to participate, and thus, can become the prime party. This has led to sharp criticism from the EU, as hate parties are free to participate. Parties get funding of the state when they have more than 500 members, and it gets increased the more members are in the party, however, nothing stops parties from getting donations. Parties are free in how they set up their candidates, party headquarters and everything else. There is only two restrictions: the party has to sign in on the National List of Parties to participate, and has to have atleast one candidate available. If a party has below 1.33% of the votes, it will not get a seat, as there are 75 seats in the parliament. Every four years there are national elections, however, it can happen sooner if the prime minister is removed from his/her position. There is no limit on how many terms someone can become prime minister. The second form of elections is the regional/muncipal elections. In this election citizens can decide who gets to be on the muncipal council, but also who will be the ábel-pros (leader regio). Again, everyone is free to start a political party, but now it has to write in the Local Muncipal List of Parties or the Regional List of Parties, or both. Every muncipal has a council of 15 people, and these govern the local politics of a muncipal. The regios itself are led by the ábel-pros, who are merely symbolic, but often form the task of instructing tasks of local muncipalities in their regios. However, the ábel-pros form the twelve headed Konsilí (The Council), and in discussion with each other, the ábel-pros have one week to assign a president. If they do not get to assign a president, the prime minister elects a president. The regional/muncipal elections are every 3 years, so this means that the ábel-pros only have to assign a president in one of every two regional/muncipal elections (as the term time of a president is 6 years). An often unknown fact is that the president can assign a vice president (often Soigans don't know that there is a vice president). The vice president has no power whatsoever, except that he or she will be president if the current president dies or resigns. This has not yet happened in the political history of Soigá. Political culture Administrative divisions Soigá is divided into 12 regios, or obermú. These reflect the regional cultures of Soigá. They are Muncipalities Law and criminal justice Foreign relations Military The head of the military is the president of Soigá, currently Koṫátíne Biredazilógéx. The Armed Forces of Soigá (Militirijú Zoigae) consist of the Soigan Land Force (Mílitiríjá Zoigae Lefúrítes) and the Soigan Navy (Mílitiríjá Zoigae Mófáríres). The air force is integrated into both, with not having an independent department. The goals of the Armed Forces of Soigá (AFS) is to protect the integrity of Soigá, to protect its citizens and its parliament and president. Maintaining peace according to UN principle is an additional task, which can be followed with the President permission. Currently there are around 6,000 active members in the Soigan army, while there are about 5,000 reserve personnel (however these are just normal people occassionaly training). The budget of the military is about 1% of the GDP, or about 500 million dollar. Soigá is part of NATO and has done missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, but not in Syria against ISIS. Economy Demography Please note that the following data is from the 2016 census Cities The following table shows the ten biggest cities of Soigá (in proper city): Population density Growth Soigá has, according to the latest census in 2016, 1,859,378 citizens. This is an increase of 2.9% from the latest census in 2011, which means the average growth the last years annually is around 0.57%. The total fertility rate, using the last census (which means only looking to the number of children beneath five years old), is 1.9, which is a lot more then what it was around ten years ago, when it was just 1.3. This means there has been a remarked growth in total fertility rate in the last ten years, and a lot of this tributed to the work of Himájel Grezemír, who was prime minister of the country between 2003 and 2010. Soigá's birth rate rapidly dropped in the eighties and nineties compared to previous decades, and because the babyboomers from the 1950 to 1970 would eventually stop working because of age, the country would face a massive aging crisis. By building new housing projects near cities house prices fell, enabling a higher parent bonus and more plus a fast growing economy (compared to relative stagnating in previous decades) Grezemír could increase the birth rates. The first census in 1895 gave a population of 659 thousand people. This means the average annual growth rate is 0.9% between the years 1895-2016. However, the growth rate curve is more of a "up and down" curve. Soigá grew the fastest in the fourties and fifties, at one point even with a growth of 1.9%. In the eighties and nineties, the growth rate went down quickly. In the year 1948, Soigá got its one millionth inhabitant, and expected is that in 2035 or around that year, Soigá will count two million citizens. Ethnicity Soigá is a rather homogene country, but it does have a variety of ethnicities. The largest ethnicity is without a suprise the Soigans, with around 95.0%. You are regarded a Soigan in the census if you have atleast one parent, or two grandparents, born in Soigá and if you identify primarily with the Soigan language, culture and ethnicity. Eastern European countries are following, with 1.2% (mainly from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania). Spain and Portugal have combined around 1.1%. Around 0.5% of the country says they identify primarily as a Maruiqi, of whom you can find in the history section more information. 2.2% of the country has a different ethnicity or nationality, or hasn't given (or doesn't want to give) one. Religion Soigá has always been divided in religion. Religion plays a strong role in creating the identity of a region. The Catholics are mainly everywhere, but most notably in the South. The Protestants mainly have the regions Ertúmóper and Tópesmai. The Firrobatists are strong in the rural areas of Inkíá, but also to a somewhat lesser extent in Čonmíá, Höngewí, Polčímer and Higormöz. The percentage of people divided per religion is given in this pie chart: Language Most Soigans speak Olfkin, around 96% speaks it as first language. Olfkin is a language like no other, an isolated language, like Basque. Just like Basque it is not a nominative-accusative language, but an ergative-absolutive language. It is a primarily SOV language, and verbs and nouns are are heavily inflected. Dialects However, there are many dialects, some even not mutually intelligeble with each other. For example, the dialect spoken by the Firrobatists in upper central Soigá is sometimes also referred to as Archaic Olfkin, due to the many old grammar rules and others that have been lost by other dialects. The main dialects are as followed: Milatese, Firrobatistic and North-Eastern. However, Milatese can be divided into Southern, Devernese and Western dialect, while North-Eastern can be divided into the Northern and Eastern dialects. See the map on the right for the distribution of dialects in Soigá. Do notice however that this doesn't automatically mean the majority in those regions speak the dialect colored there. This map is purely there to show which dialect is native to which area. The standard language is based on the Devernese dialect. This is also the dialect often used for learners of Olfkin. It is therefore also considered the prestige dialect. Because schools are not allowed to teach in an other language or dialect than Devernese Olfkin, many younger children are speaking Devernese, albeit often with an accent. This has caused a large decrease in the proficiency of other dialects. Because Devernese is the "main" dialect, it is often just named "Standard Olfkin". The classification of Olfkin remains tricky. For a long while scholars thought Olfkin was a language related to Basque, or paleo Hispanic languages, like Iberian and Lusitanian. However, modern scholars reject this theory, as there are too many profound differences between the grammar. However, some words do have the same word root, probably because of the long time the two cultures have remained together. Many scholars also reject theories that say Olfkin is related to the Afro-Asiatic family, or specifically the Berber languages. Instead, scholars group Olfkin in its own language family, with the name TBD. Age The Soigan age pyramid relatively reflects that of the average aging of the western world. In the image right you can see the number of people per cohort (that is, every five ages, with the exceptions here of the last cohort, which is indefinite respectively). The median age of Soigá is 42.9 years. This is more than the US (37.9) and The Netherlands (42.5) but less than Japan (46.9) and Germany (46.8). The percentage of youth (14 years or younger) is 16.7%, while the percentage of elderly people (65 years or older) is 18.3%. Compare this to the United States (19.0% and 14.8%), The Netherlands (16.5% and 18.2%) and Japan (12.9% and 26.3%), for example. The average life expectancy in Soigá is 82.8 years for women, and 78.1 for men, which makes it combined 80.9 years (know that the men/women ratio in Soigá is about 1:1.01). This is due the high standard of living available in Soigá. Soigá also has a relatively high rate of centenarians (people 100 years or older): 27.1 centenarians per 100,000 people. Women in Soigá get a child on average when they are 29.4 years. Immigration/emigration Culture Category:Countries Category:Countries on Earth